Changes

From what we know, existing v2.16 compatible PEX modules shouldn't be affected.

If something worked in v2.22B, but doesn't in v2.30, please let us know!

Below, you'll find changes to recent versions of ProBoard. Each change has a notation to the left of it which identifes the type of change made to the software. Those notations are as follows:

(-) Means a bug fix.
(*) Means a new feature.
(%) Means a change.
(D) Means a documentation change.
(I) Means information.

ProBoard v2.30 (Changes since ProBoard v2.22B)

(-) Fixed the dates in the JAM message bases

(-) Fixed the LastCaller and DOB dates in the current caller status screen.

(-) Updated the ENGLISH.PBL file to fix some issues displaying Y2K bugs

(*) Added an ANTIBOT.PEX call that loads ANTIBOT.PEX to force people upon first connection, to hit escape to verify that they are a human caller. The full source is included as well so you can modify it.

(*) Updated the _LC.PEX file to provide a more graphical LastCaller screen with full source included.

(%) Updated the Version screen with more information

(%) Updated the stock menus to have more features out of the box

(%) States ANSI detection upon connection

(*) Added a Python script to be called from a menu item to notify the ProBoard Discord channel who connected to your BBS

(*) Added a new menu Function 7: SHELL Special Code: *J which Displays the configured BBS name.

(*) Added a new menu Function 7: SHELL Special Code: *K which Displays the version of ProBoard.

(D) Migrated the documentation to www.proboardbbs.com/wiki

(-) Fixed other miscellaneous Y2K bugs that were left over

(%) Removed all forced registration notifications that were still present

(%) WFC Screen: Removed the seconds display in the WFC screen clock. It needlessly ties up system resources.

(%) WFC Screen: Removed # Hudson Messages - Change to complete number of messages

(%) WFC Screen: After removing the # of Hudson Messages, # of Users moved down.

(-) Fixed a minor Y2K issue: UPLOADS.LOG Date (Year) is 123. Fixed the issue to show 23 like the other log files do.

(%) Removed the Last Called stat from the User Statistics screen as it presents a Y2K bug that must be fixed in a future build.

(%) Moved the Total Calls from the bottom of the User Statistics screen to the top line as it fits better.

(-) The Save/Cancel choice when editing message areas both Save and Sancel have A highlighted as the key to select them. Should be S for Save and C for Cancel.

ProBoard v2.21.00 & v2.22B (Changes since ProBoard v2.20.00)

(-) Fixed other miscellaneous Y2K bugs that were left over

(%) Version 2.21.00 was based on ProBoard v.2.20.0 which has now become open sourced, thanks to John Riley who purchased it from Jeff Reader of Telegrafix and released it to the public. This is a minor update built by Mike Ehlert @ PCMicro to check if the code successfully compiles and executes.

(%) All the Telegrafix registration and time-bomb code has been removed.

(I) Testing revealed there are serious Y2K bugs in the source code that John was provided with. John was told that he will be receiving 3 CD backup discs from Jeff shortly containing other versions, but it seems unlikley that these discs will contain a more usable version.

(%) The Y2K bug(s) effect dates stored in the user record, messagebase and filebase. When rolling the date back to 2009 or earlier, these bugs no longer occur.

(%) The FOSSIL.ASM communication object has been updated by Mike to improve I/O performance in a virtual environment such as NTVDM, DOSBox, VMware etc. This is done by bypassing INT 14h calls and calling the FOSSIL directly.

ProBoard v2.20.00 (Changes since ProBoard v2.16)

(%) ProBoard now has a new registration scheme. It no longer uses the REGKEY.PB file to store your registration information. Now, your registration information is burned into the PROBOARD.EXE file itself. I know there are going to be a lot of people out there who won't like this change in the slightest, but it's really for new customers of ProBoard. With ProBoard v2.2, new customers don't automatically get an unlimited node license when they buy a copy. They purchase the number of nodes they want to run. The key is the serial number and the activation code which is used to unlock the software. This information tells ProBoard how many nodes it will allow. Now, for all those people who already own existing copies of ProBoard, you will automatically be upgraded to an unlimited node license as part of your upgrade.

How do I upgrade to v2.2, and get it registered? It's a four-step process:

Step 1: Download ProBoard v2.2 (which you've already done, or you
wouldn't be seeing this file).
Step 2: Run the program included with ProBoard 2.2 called REGINFO.EXE.
This will read your REGKEY.PB file, and extract out the old
registration information. It will then display an eight-digit
code on the screen which is your Upgrade-ID code. This code
will be crucial in the next step.
Step 3: Visit the TeleGrafix Web site at http://www.telegrafix.com,
and purchase your upgrade. While you're filling out the
upgrade form, you'll be asked for your Upgrade-ID code, the
name of the SysOp and the BBS name as they appear in ProCFG.
The Web site will compare this information against the data
encoded in your Upgrade-ID code, and if they match, you'll
automatically be given your new registration information.
NOTE: A single BBS can only be upgraded once, to prevent pirates
from stealing your registration information!
Step 4: Run the REGISTER.EXE program, and key-in the newly assigned
serial number and activation code.

That's all there is to it. You're ready to go online with a fully functioning ProBoard system.

(%) New look and feel for the main console.

(-) Fixed a minor centering problem in the “last caller” field.

(*) Added a new option to the status bar (ALT-J) to “Jump to DOS”. This option was already available in the software, but it wasn't documented on the main console screen.

(*) Added five new functions to the ProBoard PEX SDK:

fileno()
getcurdir()
getdisk()
_dos_getftime()
_dos_setftime()

(%) Changed message 361 in the language files to make room for the expanded year string.

(-) Updated ProCFG.EXE to properly handle four-byte year data entry. The expiration date can be set to “00/00/0000” to indicate no expiration date.

(-) The new user signup now allows you to select from the updated date formats:

MM/DD/YYYY
YYYY/MM/DD
DD/MM/YYYY

(-) The new user signup now forces you to enter four-digit years when asked to enter your date of birth.

(-) The file system now forces you to enter four-digit years when entering a date to search for files by.

(-) Fixed a potentially serious bug with the birthdate asking code. There were circumstances when it might generate a garbled birthdate.

(*) Added a new macro code to “.A?? File Control Codes”. The new code is “^F;” (i.e., 06-59). This code displays the user's password, or if the “Hide Password” option is enabled in ProCFG, then this option will display the password hiding character as defined in ProCFG.

(-) The default SETUP.* menu files have been changed to use the new “^F;” macro code instead of “^FC” for the password display to properly support the Hide Password option.

(*) Changed the look and feel of the SysOp functions F1 and Shift-F1 to be more consistent with the main console appearance.

(%) Changed the color of the status line displayed on the main console when a user is logged in. The new color is more like the main console.

(%) Changed the entire look and feel of ProCFG to be more similar to the BBS main console.

(-) Fixed a bug with ProCFG where if you make changes to the system configuration data, the inappropriate action was taken when you chose to save or cancel the changes when you exit. I don't know if this was present in the release version of v2.16, but in the code obtained from the author, the exact opposite operation was performed. If you decided to abandon the changes, they got saved instead, and vice-versa.

(-) Updated the PB_SDK header, and the library. Several of the data structures in PB_SDK.H have been updated to be accurate with regard to ProBoard v2.2 compatibility. The .LIB file has also been rebuilt to be v2.2 compliant.

ProBoard v2.16 (Changes since ProBoard v2.15)

NOTE: the new features in this release are not documented in PB216.DOC.

(-) When showing GIF file information, the more prompt is now displayed correctly.

(*) ProCFG allows you to insert, delete, move and sort message areas and file areas.

(*) Menu functions 49 and 54 (Select file and message area), now accept a new parameter to set the number of columns to display the areas in:

(-) Erasing of the “More Y/N/Tag” prompt should now work ok.

(-) ProBoard would say “No files received” twice after a null upload. This has been fixed.

(-) When editing tagged files, a 'C' would be shown when typing a 'U' to untag a single file. Fixed.

(-) The “inactive for xx seconds” prompt is now only shown once.

(-) Tabs in FILES.BBS are converted to spaces instead of waiting for <Enter>.

(*) The color of the letters typed when tagging files is no longer hardcoded to yellow.

ProBoard v2.15 (Changes since ProBoard v2.12)

(*) The biggest change in this version is the inclusion of an internal fullscreen editor. It's a stripped down version of TheEdit, and it will be distributed with ProBoard free of charge and fully functional. To enable it, you have to toggle “Use internal fullscreen editor” in ProCFG/Options/Paths.

* (NOTE: if you're using a PEX named FSED.PEX (like TheQuote), the internal full-screen editor will NOT work! Delete FSED.PEX from your PEX directory to make it work) *

(*) The default language can now be specified. This is the language that will be used to prompt the users for their name at login. It's also used when the user's language is not installed.

(*) A semaphore file for shutting down ProBoard is now supported. Just create a file called DOWN.#, and ProBoard will exit with a specific errorlevel.

(-) When a user's screen length is set to 0, ProBoard no longer locks up when listing files.

(*) Default protocols have been implemented. There's a new menu function to change the default protocol. The user can select any protocol or “No default protocol”. 3 extra language prompts have been added for this feature.

(*) It is now possible to password-protect every menu item (see the menu editor)

(%) The default date for the new file check is no longer the date of the last call, but the date of the last new file check.

(*) 2 new menu functions have been added: “Change Message Area Group” and “Change File Area Group”. This allows users to select a new file/msg group without having to select a file/msg area.

(*) The functions “Keyword Search”, “Filename search” and “New file search” now accept a new parameter:

/FG Only searches areas in the current file group
/FG=x Only searches areas in the specified file group

(*) For each menu item, you can now specify what nodes are allowed to access it.

(%) When you only have one language installed, or when all languages share the same menus, ProCFG won't ask for a language in the menu editor.

(*) The background color for prompts can now be changed. It's a global setting in ProCFG/Options/Display.

ProBoard v2.12 (Changes since ProBoard v2.10)

(-) The installation utility will ask you if you want to overwrite your old language files or not. If you select “No”, any prompts that are missing in your old language files will be updated with the default English prompts that come with ProBoard.

(-) The local protocol is no longer selectable when RIP is enabled.

(-) The local protocol is no longer selectable in the QWK PEX.

(-) The language editor no longer shows funny characters when pressing <PgDn> at the last screen.

(*) When a user logs off, any files that were tagged and not downloaded will still be tagged at the next logon.

(%) The maximum number of AKAs has been increased to 50 (used to be 20)

(%) The RIP support has been reduced: the internal RIP prompts and screens are no longer used by ProBoard. There were too many problems with it. You can only have RIP MENUS now.

(-) Putting a Ctrl-L in a language prompt no longer messes up the screen.

(-) When user's alias and real name are the same, ProBoard would sometimes leave the “From” field blank when posting a message. This has been fixed.

ProBoard v2.12 (Changes since ProBoard v2.01)

(*) Modem connect strings have been added for the following baud rates:

1200/75
21600
26400
31200
33600
36000
57600
64000
115200

(*) It is now possible to run a PEX or display an ANSI/ASCII file in any language prompt.

(*) You can now define up to 6 user-defined baud rates and connect strings.

(*) Separate modem configurations for each node are now possible.

(*) New option added to Menu Function 27 (Write a message) to send netmail to a specified address/person.

(%) The maximum # of security levels you can specify in ProBoard is now 50 instead of 25.

(*) Periods ('.') are now allowed as date seperators, for example, 06.14.57 is now considered a valid date.

(-) On multi-node systems (running ProBoard standalone, without a mailer) sometimes the modem failed to initialize properly or would fall asleep while waiting for a call. This has been fixed by sending the initialization commands every 5 minutes.

(*) Uploads can now be scanned for viruses by specifying an external upload scanner. You should be able to integrate any available upload scanner into ProBoard.

(*) New Switch in PBUTIL UK. You can now specify a -L<level>, and PBUTIL UK will only work on users with the level you specify.

(-) The CONFIG.RA file created by CONVERT SIMUL2 was sometimes not recognized by external utilities because file area names in it were being truncated. This has been fixed.

(%) The QWK offline mail PEX will now update the users lastread pointers BEFORE it waits for the user to press <ENTER>.

(-) When compiling a nodelist (using PBUTIL NC), ProBoard would display a negative number when the “xxx nodes compiled” message was displayed. This has been fixed.

(%) The field lengths for the Message Areas have been increased. The maximum length for an “area name” and “echomail tag” is now 80 characters.

(%) All of ProBoard's message area configurations are now stored in the file “MESSAGES.PB” instead of, as in previous versions, the file “MSGAREAS.PB”. This means that any external utilities or programs you have that use the file “MSGAREAS.PB” can not be used until they are updated to use the new “MESSAGES.PB” file structure.

(%) Any PEX files or doors that use the “MSGAREAS.PB” structure will NOT work correctly. They will have to be recompiled for this version to support the new “MESSAGES.PB” file structure!

(%) Any files contained in your file lists (FILES.BBS, etc.) that are larger than 1 megabyte, (for example, a 1.4 megabyte file), are now displayed as “1.4M” instead of “1400k” when the file list is shown to your users.

(%) When a “guest” user (GUEST flag set in their user record) logs in, and he/she forgot the password, ProBoard will no longer write a warning message.

(%) ProBoard will no longer ask new users to select a language if there's only one language file installed.

(*) There is a new option in PROCFG/Options/System Options: “RIP Graphics”. When set to “Disabled”, ProBoard will not use RIP, even if it was detected at login.

(*) ProBoard now allows you to change the colors of your the file listings and decide whether or not not you want to display the file counters to your users. (Refer to “PROCFG/Options/File List Format” for more details).

(*) ProBoard will now automatically enter the '/' for the users when they enter a date.

(*) While editing message/file areas in PROCFG, you can now jump to the next or previous message/file area by pressing the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys.

(-) Lastread pointers are now correctly maintained for message areas greater than 1,000.

(%) The “CD-ROM” flag in each file area's configuration has been removed. ProBoard will now determine the format of your FILES.BBS itself (whether or not the date/time and size are listed). Refer to the PROCFG/FileAreas section of the 2.10 manual for more information.

(*) A new flag has been added for each file area: “Copy Local”. When enabled, ProBoard will copy the file to a local directory before starting a download. Refer to the PROCFG/FileAreas section of the 2.10 manual for more information.

(*) The time-consuming process of creating the file “TOPS.PRO” when the first caller of each new day logs in, has been moved to PBUTIL. As a result, there's a new option in PBUTIL: “DM” (Daily Maintenance). You should run this at least once a day (as part of your nightly maintenance).

(*) Menu Function 34 (View Archive) now supports RAR archived files.

(*) Handles (Aliases) are now supported in menu functions 13 (List Users), 50 (Show Users Online), 51 (Last Callers) and 53 (MultiLine Chat).

(%) Files listed in “FILES.BBS” can now start with a “!”. ProBoard will determine if a line in “FILES.BBS” starting with a “!” is a comment or a file name.

(-) PROCFG will no longer lock up the system if you press the <DEL> key when there are no entries shown in the Personal Files window.

(*) When running ProBoard in standalone mode (without a front-end mailer system), when you're at the “waiting for call” screen, you can now shell to DOS by pressing <ALT+J>.

(%) The .A?? file control code for the user's address line 2 has been changed from ^F% to ^F' (single quote).

(%) The .A?? file control code for the user's country has been changed from ^F@ to ^F“ (double quote).

(-) When you are replying to netmail from a point address, ProBoard now correctly addresses the message to that point address.

(%) The file MODEM.PRO has been renamed to MODEM.PB It is safe to delete your old MODEM.PRO file -AFTER- you have run the CONVERT PB routine (or the installation utility) as outlined in UPGRADE.TXT.

(-) The “In TOPFILES” flag is now saved correctly when editing file area configurations.

(-) The ”@<LASTDATE>@“ and ”@<LASTTIME>@“ text macros now work correctly.

(-) The “Hidden” flag in validation templates now correctly toggles the “Hidden” flag in the user record instead of the “Deleted” flag.

(-) Files that are not valid .GIF files are not shown when using Menu Function 55 (Show .GIF File Info).

(%) The “BEFOREPW.A??” and “AFTERPW.A??” files are now also displayed (if they exist) for BBS systems who are NOT using a system password.

(-) File counters for files that have been downloaded more than 99 times, are now displayed properly (alignment) when displaying file lists.

(-) The JAM lastread pointers in are now correctly updated when running PBUTIL MP (Message Pack).

(%) Users no longer can press <CTRL+G> to make the BBS beep when they enter messages using ProBoard's internal message editor.

(*) Personal files can now be sent from directories other than the personal files directory as specified in ProCFG.

(*) For every personal file, you can set whether ProBoard will delete the file after it has been downloaded or not.

(*) ProCFG now checks if directories you entered exist or not, and asks the user if he/she would like to create them. Paths are created multiple levels deep. For example, if you enter “C:\PB\RIP\ICONS”, and C:\PB\RIP does not exist, ProCFG will create “C:\PB\RIP” first, and then “C:\PB\RIP\ICONS” !

(*) Menu function 44 (Global boards selection) now accepts the parameter ”/M“ which allows the user to globally select/unselect areas for mail check.

(%) For each message area, you can now choose between the following for “Name Options”:

Real Names Only

Free Alias

Fixed Alias (or real name)

Fixed Alias (enforced)

(*) Local Up/Downloads are now supported. (by using the supplied PEX file LOC_PROT.PEX)

(%) When searching for files, the area names are now shown on one line, unless a match in found in an area.

(*) You can now replace the login procedure with a PEX. The old LOGIN.PEX is no longer supported.